Best food for overweight cats

An 8-year-old Ragamuffin at 7kg on unrestricted dry food — that's a pretty classic recipe for weight creep, and it's genuinely worth sorting now before it starts affecting her joints and heart. Wet food is generally better for cats: it's more hydrating, more filling per calorie, and closer to what cats actually evolved to eat. Dry food left out all day makes it really hard to control intake, especially for a cat who's already overweight. Before I point you in a specific direction — does she have any diagnosed health issues, and is the free-feeding a convenience thing or does she just refuse to eat on a schedule?

That's really useful — no underlying conditions means you've got a lot of room to move. The core problem with free-fed dry food is that it's calorie-dense and cats don't self-regulate well with it, so the bowl just gets grazed all day. Switching to wet food fed in measured portions twice a day will do two things at once: it naturally reduces calorie intake because wet food has far more water content, and it gives her structured meals so you can actually track what she's eating. For long work days, a simple timed feeder handles the practicality side completely. What does she currently eat — do you know the brand, or is it just whatever was on offer?

A non-fussy cat is a gift — makes this much simpler. I'd move her onto Applaws Chicken Breast in Broth wet food. It's high protein, very low carbohydrate, minimal fillers, and the broth adds hydration which is important for an older cat whose kidneys will be quietly working harder than they were at two. The ingredient list is genuinely short and clean — chicken, broth, that's essentially it. For a 7kg cat trying to lose weight, you're aiming for roughly 180–200 kcal a day split across two meals, and Applaws tins make portion control straightforward. Pair it with a timed feeder if the schedule is the sticking point. She should start losing weight slowly and steadily within 6–8 weeks, which is exactly the pace you want — rapid weight loss in cats can cause serious liver problems.

Since she's not fussy, you can move fairly quickly — but I'd still give it a week of mixing just to let her digestive system adjust rather than going straight to 100% wet. Start with about 75% her usual dry, 25% the Applaws, then flip it over the following few days. The bigger transition is really the scheduled feeding rather than the food itself. If you want to keep a small amount of dry food in a puzzle feeder for enrichment on long days, that's fine — just account for those calories in her daily total and make sure it's not an open bowl she can graze from freely.

A healthy weight for a Ragamuffin female is typically around 5–5.5kg, so she's got roughly 1.5kg to lose. At a safe rate of about 1–2% body weight per week, you're looking at four to six months to get there properly. It feels slow but it's the only safe pace for cats. Check in with your vet around the two-month mark — they'll confirm she's losing at the right rate and not too fast. Applaws is widely available on Amazon if that's easiest, and it works out cheaper per meal than you'd expect given the quality. You're doing the right thing catching this at eight rather than ten.